Cast iron tables from famous water worksBy Mark Chervenka

Cast iron tables from famous water works

In the first quarter of the twentieth century, municipal waterworks had valve covers and meter lids designed to order. A 1922 design from San Francisco, California featured the Golden Gate Bridge; a 1926 design from New Orleans had a moon and stars.

A California metal shop sold a series of tables featuring new valve covers as table tops. New tops were also available from water works of New Orleans, LA; New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; and Roswell, NM.

All the tops in the tables are new. Tops are either purchased directly from water works departments or are made from new designs based on vintage covers.

The new San Francisco top, shown here, combines the original Golden Gate bridge design in the center with newly added lettering around the edge. The lettering reads, "Jefferson Mack Metal–San Francisco" which is the name of the metal shop that made the tables. Any metal with that name is of recent manufacture.